Thursday, July 14, 2011

Swiftkey X Review for Android Handsets(Photos)

We had a vision, a great vision of the future, a future where everyone, great and small, had one keyboard on their mobile device to rule them all. Or, on the other hand, to have you rule it. This is a keyboard with predictive text, the ability to change the way it looks, and the ability to take in gestures to affect the text.

Sounds fun already? Let’s have a look for all you not using it already (shouldn’t be too many, right? Right!) This is SwiftKey X, one half of the two-app review sent out today by the makers of the original SwiftKey keyboard!Why would I want a new keyboard on my Android?Well certainly that is a valid question and indeed the very first one you should also be asking yourself if you’re considering replacing one of the most curtail components of your Android device. Here’s the answer: this is the best. This is the greatest learning-type keyboard on the market and you’ve just GOT to check it out. Especially right now here and today, as after today this handset version will end up costing $3.99 instead of today’s opening ceremony sale which puts that app at $1.99 for 24 hours. What a really awesome deal!

I’ve got SwiftKey on my tablet also – does learning transfer?At the moment, Swiftkey stores all your information right there with you on the handset, not on any database they own. Therefor you’ll not have to connect to the internet every time you want some sweet predictive text. That also means that you’ll have to have the system re-learn everything from scratch basically each time you own a new device. Is this enough to deter us from purchase? No way mang, not gonna happen.What are the special features of this keyboard?

There are quite a few different little items you can do, quite a few of them behind the scenes in settings. One of these is your ability to choose a theme and layout – you’ve got a selection of three different themes, each of them just totally excellent in their own right – light, neon (which you see above and below) and dark. Dark is white on black, light is the opposite, and TRON is the third.

You’ll also be working with some new gesture commands, one of them being a swipe from the upper right to the lower left. What this does is delete the last word you just wrote, no matter what it was. You can do something similar in swiping downward to then – poof! Minimize the keyboard. Above each key there’s an alternative character which you can get to by long-pressing each key long enough to squeeze out an “&” symbol.

Then of course, there’s the Prediction Bar.FUN OFFICIAL FACT: SwiftKey X uses TouchType’s fluency 2.0 AI engine to learn from, and then think like you to help predict word (Now with even better accuracy).The Prediction Bar

This bar is the thing that’ll either cut out the stragglers and toss them to the ground as if they were slain or carry them up to quicker typing heaven – joy to the heavens! This prediction bar can not only act as a fixer of words, but it can predict what you might say next and suggest that for a single tap input from you to make it happen. This can get really quick, extremely fast, that’s for sure.

Improvements versus previous versionsWe’ve got a pretty sweet list here of items that’ve been updated since the last time we got to look at a full out-of-beta release look at SwifKey, and wouldn’t you know it, here they are now!• Fixed the fast typing problem where previous prediction is taken over current prediction.• Fixed the disabled clear language data option bug.• Updated neon theme candidate buttons.• Updated summary for ‘show all foreign characters’ option.• Fixed xlarge landscape spacebar in ‘shortmessage’ fields.• Enabled Scandinavian layouts for tablets.• Added split Scandinavian layouts for tablets.• Added T-comma character to DroidSans font for Romanian.• Added the “Share SwiftKey X on your Facebook Wall?” functionality to personalization.• Fixed the shiftstate toggle on orientation change bug.• Fixed the Honeycomb backspace problem and updated IEM tests.• Fixed incorrectly aligned keys.• Added in the new sharing URL (http://skx.me)• Disabled the QuickPeriod checkbox when the autocomplete selection makes it irrelevantMostly bug fixes, that’s what this amounts to. Of course all these fixes add up to create the greatest version of SwiftKey yet, and we’re the most pumped up EVER to help grace the world with its excellence. And of course there’s a dash of voice integration in there as well, just for fun!

Wrap-UpWhat you’re getting here is a whole new keying experience. You’re not going to find anything like this anywhere else in the Android OR Apple universe – unless of course it’s a clone or something. AND you’ve got to get pumped up about how this app is $1.99 for today only. Go get yourself some sweeter keying all night long with it! Worth the day!This app can be found in the Android Marketplace aside the SwiftKey Tablet X application, another typing implementation by the same group, also reviewed this morning by your favorite gadget and tech crew right here at SlashGear!